So today’s my birthday! Yay!!! I’m 44 years old today. And since history is something of interest to me, I thought for today we’d see what else happened on this day in history besides me being born.
The first thing that popped up on my search is that on this day in 1493, Christopher Columbus mistook manatees for mermaids. Yes friends. Columbus looked out into the ocean and saw these manatees (otherwise known as SEA COWS) and thought they were mermaids. He’s even quoted to have said that they were “not half as beautiful as they were painted.” You reckon? Let’s compare.
Sure. I can totally understand the mix up, Chris.
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In 1768, the first modern circus was staged. And that’s appropriate since in 2018, the circus is still strong with this one.
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In 1861, the merchant ship, “Star of the West,” was shot at trying to deliver supplies to Fort Sumter. While this didn’t actually start the Civil War, it was the first time shots were exchanged between the North and the South. The war itself didn’t officially begin until April of that year.
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In 1976, two years after I was born, Sylvester Stallone started filming Rocky. A movie about a guy who liked to exercise that began filming on my birthday. Ironic considering that I hate exercise with the fire of 1000 suns.
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In 2007, the iPhone debuted. Thank you Steve Jobs! I’m really sorry it took me several more birthdays before I finally gave in and got one.
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So that’s just a few things. If you want to read about more stuff that happened on my birthday or you want to see what happened on yours, check out the History Channel’s “This Day in History.”
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